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OWERRI, Imo State — Kelechi Chika Ubaku, a lecturer in Imo State, returned home from work on the evening of Tuesday, August 11, 2026, only to discover that his entire life savings of N2,058,000 had been drained from his accounts at GTBank, First Bank and Moniepoint through a series of unauthorised transactions.
Ubaku said he was offloading items he had bought for his family from his vehicle when he received a debit alert for N780,000 from his GTBank account. The funds had been transferred at about 6:50 p.m. to a GoMoney account numbered 8504532532 in the name of Kalifa Idris.
Alarmed, he immediately logged into his GTBank app and discovered that another N1 million had been withdrawn just two minutes earlier, at about 6:48 p.m., to a different GoMoney account (8501212095) in the name of Hilal Hala. He said he had not received any alert for that larger transfer.
He then checked his other accounts. A Moniepoint debit of N64,000 had been made at about 5:30 p.m. to a Moniepoint account (6806530751) belonging to Muhammad Umar Faruk.
Moments later, he found that the remaining N214,000 in his First Bank account had also been transferred at about 6:54 p.m. to the same GoMoney account held by Hilal Hala.
“Across the three banks, I lost a total of N2,058,000 to the unauthorised transactions. That is my life savings. I have nothing other than that, and I am currently stranded,” Ubaku told investigators.
The lecturer said none of the transfers had been authorised by him. The transactions occurred within a short window on the evening of August 11.
The following day, Ubaku reported the incident in person to all three financial institutions. GTBank and First Bank later informed him by email that they were not liable for the losses. Moniepoint requested a court order before it would consider a reversal. Ubaku obtained the order through his lawyer and served it on the fintech company.
He also petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Awka Zonal Command through his lawyer but said he had not received a response at the time of the initial report.
In responses to media enquiries, GTBank stated that it had placed a temporary restriction on the account and contacted the receiving bank in an attempt to recover the funds. However, the money had already been utilised.
The bank said its review showed the transactions were authenticated using the account’s security credentials on the GTWorld platform (user ID, login password and PIN), suggesting the customer’s device or security information may have been compromised. It found no evidence of internal compromise or system failure and therefore declined liability.
First Bank confirmed that the complaint had been logged, investigated and resolved but cited customer confidentiality in declining to provide further details through third-party channels.
Moniepoint initially said the matter had been escalated for swift resolution. Following further media intervention, the company refunded the N64,000 taken from Ubaku’s Moniepoint account on September 10, 2026.
“Thank you so much for your intervention. Moniepoint has refunded the money which was taken from my account. I hope GTBank and First Bank do the same,” Ubaku said after receiving the partial refund.
As of the latest reports, the bulk of the funds — N1.994 million from the GTBank and First Bank accounts — remain unrecovered. The case highlights ongoing concerns about the security of digital banking platforms and the challenges customers face in recovering funds lost to unauthorised transactions in Nigeria.
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